By Gretel A. Perera, Q Communications Group As the Presidential elections come to a close, many of us are giving a sigh of relief. Now we can all move on with our lives without the constant barrage of election news coverage, no more enduring endless negative attack ads during our favorite TV shows and no more unfriending Friends on Facebook or Twitter because of their political rants. But before we close this political chapter, it is important to take a look a closer look at the real winner in these elections.… more

Public Knowledge wrote an interesting post about what the election means for the future of the Internet. Specifically, the post looked at issues likely to come up during the next few years. One important issue is copyright reform, according to the post:

1) there is unlikely to be a bill that strengthens copyright enforcement that moves through either house of Congress without a thorough debate; and 2) there are now more members and Senators looking at the possibility of rolling back some of the relentless march towards stronger and longer copyrights.

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Less than 4% of itemized contributions — those above $200 — to the presidential campaigns came from Latino neighborhoods, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. However, this analysis only included donations of $200 or more, since the campaigns don’t have to disclose identifying information about contributions under that amount. The analysis also barely mentioned that communities of color have higher unemployment rates than whites, and defined “engagement” exclusively as donating money.… more

By Lois Beckett, ProPublica

California launched online voter register this year and the results have been pretty impressive: 1 million visitors to the site. Online registrants tended to be younger, which is interesting in a state where 38% of the population is Latino, and during an era where 1 in 3 Latino voters are under 30. According to the California Secretary of State the site drew about 1 million users, and of the 680,000 new voters, more than half came from the online registration process. Most of the online registrants were young, according to Capitol Weekly:

 The online registrants also trended toward younger voters.

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The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project released a study this week detailing the use of mobile devices for political purposes this election season. Turns out, about 27% of registered voters use their phones for political ends. Three-fourths of these folks use their phones to text, and of those texts:

• 19% sent campaign-related texts
• 5% signed up to receive politics-related texts
• 5% are receiving political texts they don’t want

But the really interesting stuff is at the intersection of cell phone ownership (48% of those in the survey owned smartphones) and social networking:

• 45% used their smartphone to read others’ comments on a social networking site about a candidate or the campaign
• 35% used their smartphone to fact check a candidate’s statement
• 18% used their smartphone to comment on a social networking site about a candidate or the campaign

You can read the rest of the report here.… more

By Hope Gillette Even though a bill granting U.S. visas to foreigners who completed advanced science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) degrees received a majority vote in the House of Representatives, it failed to achieve the needed two-thirds majority to meet approval. The proposal was instead suspended with a vote of 257 in favor compared to 158 who were opposed. According to Computer World, the inclination toward approval of the bill had many lawmakers discussing what the next reasonable options were.… more

The National Conference of State Legislatures put together an interactive map of the 33 states that have passed voter ID legislation. The color-coded map takes into account whether the voter ID law includes photo ID (or not). Also included is data tracking the status of voter ID lawsuits, legislative action, litigation and details about what voter ID requirements are. It’s important to note that the majority of states in this country have tried, or enacted, voter ID laws.… more

You may or may not have noticed all kinds of political ads bombarding the periphery of your Facebook profile in the past few weeks. I noticed it right about the time the conventions started, and since I’ve been clicking on them to see where they link to, I’ve been served with even more — to the point that they outnumber the non-political ads on my profile now. According to a study by 140 Proof the political social ad market is about $142 million this year and it seems like all sides, as well as some on the sidelines, are piling on.… more

A website in Texas aims to help Latino voters get a better understanding of everyone on the ballot that’s not  running for president in November. The site, available in English and Spanish, is called Down Ballot Vote. According to the site’s mascot, a dog named Ballot:

In politics, “down ballot” refers to ALL candidates underneath the Pres and VP. Don’t know who’s on your ballot? Don’t stress! That’s why I built this site.

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